Gold slipped on Monday, as investors took profits after three weeks of gains and turned their attention to a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting later this week that is widely expected to reaffirm its near-zero interest rate stance.

Spot gold steadied 0.25 percent lower at $1,329.90 an ounce by 3:45 p.m. EDT (1945 GMT). Last week, the precious metal regained the $1,300 level for the first time in a month. It rose 9 percent over the last three weeks.

Hedge funds raised wagers on a gold rally as speculation that the Federal Reserve will hold off on curbing stimulus drove prices toward the biggest gain in 18 months. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. expects the rally to reverse.

Money managers increased their net-long position by 26 percent to 70,067 futures and options as of July 23, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. The fourth consecutive weekly gain is the longest streak since October. Bullish wagers across 18 U.S.-traded commodities gained 7.4 percent to 615,140. Investors more than doubled bets on lower corn prices to a record net-short holding.

How much exposure to gold should a typical investment portfolio have? While it's hardly the most important question an investor should be thinking about, it's certainly one worth considering. To be sure, most investors didn't even think that much about ...

An ounce of gold, which bought a three-year high of 66.6 ounces of silver on July 19, will be worth 70 by the end of the year as demand fails to soak up an excess of the cheaper metal, according to UBS AG.

“The silver market is in fabrication surplus, and the only thing that’s keeping it alive is investment demand and there is no meaningful increase in ETFs,” said Dominic Schnider, head of commodities research at UBS’s wealth-management unit in Singapore. “In an environment where gold falls, silver simply just does more, it’s more volatile.”

The true Gold price is PP in the graph, while the phony price is P* since it is associated with supply shortage and excess demand. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but sometimes a picture requires a thousand words to explain its full meaning. The true Gold price is very much unknown, hotly debated, and unclear even to the professionals in the business of selling it in either small or large quantities. Tremendous variance in Supply across the world will become more common, seen as pockets today. The new wrinkle to float from the ether is the wide perception that the gold market is corrupt, that futures contracts are corrupt, that the official inventory accounting is corrupt, that the bond market behind the fiat currency system is corrupt, that the derivative market that supports the banking system is corrupt, that the bank asset accounting is corrupt, and that the leaders are members of a corrupt corporatocracy that hardly steeps in democracy. The perceptions toward corruption are fast changing. The Jackass contention is that the true Gold price is an order of magnitude higher than the corrupt COMEX & LBMA price spouted in the official Reich public address system that hovers over the financial arenas. Take a stab and declare the true Gold price actually (based on real value) to be on the order of $3000 per ounce, with huge upward thrusts in the works. The discovery of the 20,000 tons missing in Allocated Gold Accounts, or perhaps 40,000 tons missing, and possibly more, will send shock waves through the entire Gold and Currency and Bond and Bank system. The Allocated Gold Account scandal has finally begun after long wait. Then and only then will the true Gold price be marked as closer to $10,000 per ounce. The entire financial structure and system with all its interwoven cables and leverage rods and gearboxes will be broken like on a Mad Max film set.

US Dollars trade is down 7.4 points at 82.690 with a low of 82.610, an artificial height to say the least but is the current reportable. Treasuries are flat to positive after the event I reported about last week in which bonds started falling, then were reversed in a rapid manner with no discussion what’s so ever from our dumbed down news services. Energy Sector is trading higher overall with Crude Oils natural lead up 8 cents at $102.86 (Nov). Gold is higher during the London Session with the trade at $1,333.80, $12.30 higher and $4.20 below the high, Silver is following with the trade at $20.065, 29.4 cents higher and 8.5 below the high set as well. Open Interest is finally below 100 for Gold’s July delivery and Silver OI is strong at 161 or 805,000 ounces standing for delivery. Wednesday is the First Notice day for August contracts with Gold’s OI in the same month at 54,398 or just under 5.5 million ounces.

Three years ago, this too-big-to-fail bank capitalized on special rules created by the Federal Reserve and authorized by Congress by buying an obscure company called Metro International Trade Services. It is one of the largest warehousing companies for aluminum in the country.

Solar power appears to be coming back with a vengeance on the back of recent announcements by China and Japan. Both countries are pushing for new programs to significantly increase their solar power capacity in the years ahead.

Last week, China's State Council backed targets to more than quadruple the country's solar generating capacity to 35 gigawatts by 2015.1 This target had been previously stated by China's State Grid, which manages the country's electricity distribution, but now has the official backing of China's cabinet and its top governing body. According to the statement from the State Council, China will add around 10 GW per year from 2013-2015. If completed, this effort will significantly increase China's solar power generating capacity, which stood at eight GW at the end of 2012.2

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